# Overview

The SAT20 Asset Circulation Protocol, also known as the Satoshi Transcending Protocol(STP), is a protocol for how Satoshi assets can enter the native BTC Layer 2 network and safely return to the Layer 1 mainnet. Its core technical foundation is the RSMC protocol for Lightning Channels. Through this protocol, assets are locked on the mainnet, and users retain control of their assets, allowing them to unilaterally withdraw them back to the Bitcoin mainnet at any time. The STP essentially maps the ownership of BTC mainnet assets to other networks for trading, allowing users to control them. Its functionality is similar to a bridge, but it inherits the decentralized and secure features of the BTC mainnet. Therefore, the STP is also known as BitBridge.

The SAT20 Asset Circulation Protocol is merely a protocol, not a Layer 2 network. The BTC ecosystem requires a native Layer 2 network that can support the secure, fast, and economical trading and circulation of BTC mainnet native assets.

What is a BTC native Layer 2 network? We believe there is only one standard: fast and economical circulation while ensuring asset security. Security here means that users have full control over their assets, without requiring permission from anyone else. They can enter or exit the Layer 2 network at any time, and even a Layer 2 network crash will not affect the security of their assets. This is the core and most distinctive feature of the SAT20 asset circulation protocol.

The core concepts of the SAT20 asset circulation protocol are as follows:

1. RSMC: The core technology of the Lightning Network, including commitment transactions, penalty transactions, and watchtowers, ensures that users maintain control over their assets in the channel and can unilaterally withdraw them to the mainnet at any time.
2. Locking and Transcending: Using Lightning channel technology, Satoshis are locked in a Lightning channel, and their ownership, i.e., the mapped assets, is then transcended to the Layer 2 network for circulation.
3. Dynamic Channel Capacity Adjustment: Using Splicing technology, the capacity of a Lightning channel can be adjusted, allowing for the addition and removal of assets in the channel at any time.
4. Support for mainstream asset issuance protocols on the mainnet: Ordinals, ORDX, Runes, BRC20, etc.


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